The Berry Islands

 We arrived at Bonds Cay in the Barry Islands of the Bahamas on March 27th. We had been on the move for 4 straight days and were ready for a break. The weather was in our favor, so we started the day with a dinghy ride to explore the beaches that surrounded us and do some snorkeling on the various rock patches around the shallow bay. 

I was hunting for dinner most of the time and missed a shot at a nice grouper that still haunts me. There  wasn't a lot of fish, but it was still tons of fun. While I was exploring a rocky shoreline, I saw the largest ray I have ever seen in the wild. It was a spotted eagle ray that was about 4 feet across. Kim was able to see it also from the dinghy through the crystal clear water. 

We have not seen many birds while in the Bahamas, so this Great Egret was worth a picture. I snorkeled around the rock island just beyond, but it was too shallow to hold any larger fish.

We took a long walk on this very nice beach. Kim was in her element.

The contrast in colors of the crystal clear water was quite striking. The darker area is a grass bed.  

There was an old dock on the shore that made a nice picture.

I think this is what this trip was all about. We really enjoyed exploring the beaches that we had all to ourselves. 

The shore had dead sea grass on it that looked like cut up newspapers. I am not sure I have ever seen it just like that before.

This beach had a rock layer and then the sand and sea grass. It was low tide.

SHIFT in the crystal clear water

Wow, just WOW!

We ended this great day with a beautiful sunset.

Once again, we had bad weather approaching the following day. The wind was going to come out of the Southwest then clock around to the Northeast. Our beautiful spot at Bonds Cay had no protection from that direction, so we decided to move over to Hoffman's Cay. It was a short trip of only about 9.7 nm. the only problem was that there were a couple of very shallow parts that would require all of our attention. We waited for just before high tide and headed out. Just as we left the anchorage a large Catamaran was also leaving. We talked on the radio and they went first with a 4 foot draft. As they passed the shallow spots, they reported back to us the depth. I could see them on my AIS, so I could follow their exact path. The most shallow water we saw was about 5.5 feet, so that leaves us about a foot of clearance. I was happy to arrive safely at Hoffman's and get the hook down right in front of a beautiful beach. There were a few other boats around that were also there to ride out the coming weather. 

Hoffman's Cay is a beautiful island that is known for a very nice "Blue Hole". A Blue Hole in the Bahamas is a collapsed area in the limestone that gets filled with water. We went ashore to see if we could find it. It did not take long to find the path and make the walk to the edge of the cliff. We met some other cruisers there that told us they had jumped in. We decided we wanted to do it so both Kim and I made the plunge from about 30 feet up. The water was very refreshing and the scenery was amazing. 

I was surprised how big it was. 

We climbed down to the waters edge to check out the landing area to make sure we could get out if we jumped.

Me in the shot for perspective

This is where we made the jump. We have it on video that I will include with one of my videos on my YouTube Channel.

We saw this cool lizard on the walk back to the beach

There is SHIFT at anchor from the beach.

Kim on another beach. 

The strong weather came as predicted. Our position was good and we had a comfortable two days on the boat. The only problem was that we had not seen a grocery store in a while that had bread and we were now out. So, I decided to try to make some. It actually came out pretty good. 

Nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread. 

As we sat at Hoffman's Cay waiting for the weather to pass, I was looking at our next moves. I wanted to go visit Great Harbor Cay before we left the Berry Islands, but I was also looking at our plan to make the crossing back to Florida. We were now down to three weeks left on our cruising permit and I did not want to be forced to make that crossing in bad weather. I was now looking for a time where we could make the crossing comfortably, but we had some challenges to face before we could do that. In my next entry, I will write about the worst day we had in the Bahamas. It was a full moon...

Sailing to Nassau and The Berry Islands

 The weather window to travel north was holding on March 26th. The long range forecast did not look good, so we decided to take advantage of the weather and keep moving north. This was the day that we were leaving the Exumas. The Exumas are as beautiful as advertised. We loved the crystal clear water. There were two things that we did not like as much. First was the number of other boats. We had become used to spending time in fairly empty anchorages. In the Exumas, there was always lots of boats around. The other issue was the difficulty in finding anchorages that have protection from the West. With that being said, we loved the Exumas and think it is the Bahamas experience that most cruisers are looking for. 

We were up early to get a full day to make the 46 nm trip up to the island of New Providence. New Providence is the island that has the city of Nassau on it. Nassau is the largest city in the Bahamas by far. It is civilization. We had purposely avoided it during our visit to the Bahamas, just like we do in the US. We just don't like cities. 

We started out by working around the reefs that protect Highborne Cay. That took about a half hour, but all went well. We then put up sails and turned Northeast. We had a few other boats in the area, but most of the day we did not have sight of land and could only see boats on the distant horizon. We had some fairly light wind, so we sailed for a while and then motor sailed for a while. It was another very easy day on the water until we got to the island. As we made our approach, the currents got crazy. The water went from 50 feet deep to over 2000 feet at the tip of the island and the ocean currents were ripping. The water got rough for about a half mile, but then once we got out in the deep water it got much better. We then made a turn to starboard and went through an opening in the reef surrounding New Providence. It wasn't long that we were anchored right off of "Jaws" beach. 

Leaving Highborne Cay we had a very nice sunrise.

Not much to see out here except the beautiful water. In the distance, you may be able to see our first sight of the Atlantis Resort on New Providence.

This is our anchorage called "Jaws" Beach. This is where they filmed Jaws 3. It was a Sunday, so we had lots of people there with loud music when we arrived, but before long the people went home to make it to work the following day. 

It was a nice evening after our long day sailing. There were about 10 other boats in the anchorage. 

We had no plans to stay on New Providence. We were heading to more remote anchorages up in the Berry Islands. We had been traveling for 3 straight days and were a bit tired, but we decided to keep moving one more day and make the 33 nm sail up to Bonds Cay in the Berry's. We had another good forecast with wind behind us, but I knew it could get interesting. The water between New Providence and the Berry's is deep and notorious for having swift currents and big swell. 

The beginning of the day was going well and we motor sailed in the light wind. About half way through the sail, the swell started to get bigger. As it turned out, we had swell coming from two different directions and it made the ride very uncomfortable. The wind was not strong enough to hold the sails in place, so as the boat rolled from side to side they started to slam back and forth. I tried a number of different configurations, but none of them worked. I finally gave up and pulled down all of the sails and we motored for the last two hours. It was the roughest sea we have ever seen, but SHIFT handled it with no problem. It is times like these that I keep gaining confidence in our boat. And the best news of all is neither of us got seasick.

As we approached Bonds Cay, we saw the cut in the islands and made it in without issue. Then all of a sudden the water was totally flat. It is amazing how everything changes that quickly. One minute we are holding on for dear life and the next minute all is calm. 

I did not take any pictures of our rough passage. This is our nice calm anchorage at Bonds Cay.

The late afternoon sky was beautiful. All of that water is under 8 feet deep. The Berry's are known for shallow water.

I can't wait to go explore this cay.

The water is about 8 feet deep and crystal clear.

We ended the day with a nice sunset. 

We were very happy to have the hook down at Bonds Cay. The forecast looked fine for the next couple of days to stay here and rest. It looked like a great place to go check out the beaches and do some snorkeling around the rocks on the shoreline. In my next entry, I will tell you how those plans worked out. 

Traveling North for the First Time in a Long Time

 We left the Chesapeake Bay back in November of 2022. We have been traveling mostly south ever since. Our visa for the Bahamas was a three month cruising permit that started on January 17th. It was now March 24th. We had plenty of time, but the weather had been bad for moving north. I had been watching a weather window with some comfortable Southeast wind that would be perfect for moving north. It arrived on March 24th as predicted. We decided to take the opportunity to get moving. We still had plenty of new places we wanted to see on the trip back north up the Exumas chain and then we wanted to spend some time in the Berry Islands before making our crossing back to Florida. 

The weather looked good when we got up, so it did not take long to get the main sail raised and lift the anchor. As always in the Exumas on a good weather day, we were not alone. Before long we were sailing in the company of a number of other boats. Some were power and some were sailboats, but all had the same idea, take advantage of the good weather, and make some miles. 

The wind was at a good angle as we left the anchorage at Black Point because we had to sail to the Northwest to clear Harvey Cay that sticks out to the west of the rest of the Exumas island chain. Once we cleared that we turned more north. At that point, the wind was almost directly behind us and about 8 knots. We were not in a big hurry, so I set us up with a wing on wing and we cruised along at about 4 knots. As the day went on, the wind got lighter, and we ended up motoring for an hour or two. It was a very chill day. 

We were looking for a good place to stop, and it looked like Hawksbill Cay in the Exumas Land and Sea Park was a good option. They have mooring balls there, so we pulled in and hooked up. It was a very nice place with a great beach. We got the dinghy down and went for a cruise. We went to the beach and found two very nice beach party spots all set up for a party, but no one there except the serving staff. There were two Super Yachts that were anchored off shore. We watched as they ferried supplies to shore for their guests. The crazy thing is their guests never came ashore to enjoy the food and drinks that had been prepared for them.  

We went on our way and did some snorkeling. We saw some huge fish, but you can't shoot them in the park, so we just enjoyed watching them. The night turned out calm and we rested well on the mooring ball. 

I will never get tired of this beautiful clear water. Easily the best thing in the Bahamas.

Kim on the beautiful beach. You can see the tents at the other end all set up for the party that did not happen.

That is the mooring field with just a few boats in it.

The only shot I have of one of the Super Yachts. Could you imagine spending over $100,000 per week to rent a boat? Crazy...

We ended up traveling 33 nm that first day. When we got up on the 25th, we decided to take advantage of another beautiful day and make some more miles north. We had pretty close to the same conditions for the morning, but the wind picked up and shifted more to the Southwest in the afternoon. We did not go as far on the 25th and stopped at Highborne Cay. There is an anchorage on the West side of the island, but with the wind shift it was pretty rough. I saw a good place to anchor on the north side of the island, so we decided to move over there. The chart showed that we had plenty of water, but at one point it got pretty shallow and we just touched the bottom. That was a bit unnerving, but the boat seemed to be fine. The good news is that SHIFT has a very well designed Keel and a very protected area for the prop. We motored on and took the long way around a second reef and dropped the hook on the north side of Highborne Cay. 

We had some more Wing on Wing sailing for this 20.1 nm trip up to Highborne Cay

Every day I take pictures of the water tying to show how clear it is. 

This is a shot of our anchorage at Highborne Cay.

Highborne Cay is private and you are not allowed to go ashore. The island, like most of the Exumas, is rough limestone rocks.

The wind died off in the evening and we had a nice calm night. 

We had another good night of sleep that second night. That was a good thing because we had a big day planned for our next day. It was now time to leave the Exumas and go to the most populated island in the Bahamas. I will write all about our long sail to New Providence the following day in my next entry. 

Black Point

 We left Big Majors and Staniel Cay on March 17th and sailed about 10 miles south to Black Point. The area around Staniel Cay is very touristy. Black Point is very different. Black Point is a small settlement, that has been a center of local activity for many years. There a plenty of vacation rentals, but not the real high end ones you can see over on Staniel. The vibe is very local and it is much less expensive to live here. Many of the locals board local transit boats each day to go to work over on Staniel. There is a great restaurant called Lorraines and a great laundromat with the best view of any laundromat I have ever seen. 

This is a view of the harbor from the East end. There is a long shallow area that is almost dry at low tide at this end and then about 9 feet of water where the boats are anchored. 

The hole in the limestone in front of you is a blow hole. I have a good video of it going off that I will include on my YouTube Videos.

There was a party going on at this end for the cruisers on St. Patricks day. 

The town is quiet and fairly well kept. There is a place to get rid of trash and get water. Both for a very small fee. That is one of the many reasons that Black Point is a cruisers favorite.

This is the view from the laundry dock. Not bad!

I really liked Black Point. This is the Bahamian experience that I had been looking for.

That is Lorraines restaurant. Just above it is Lorraines mom's house. You can go there and get a fresh baked loaf of Coconut bread for $10. I got one right out of the oven. Very tasty. 

This is the laundry and showers. Very reasonable at $4.15 to wash and $4.15 to dry. 

Just a beautiful harbor.

Our time in Black Point was very enjoyable on land. We did have three days of a very rolly anchorage. At least it is all free. Then the wind came out of the north and the roll stopped. The harbor has very good protection from the north, so even though the wind was blowing around 20 knots, the water was pretty flat. 

Lorranine hosted a totally free dinner one night just to say thank you to the cruisers. That was very nice and the food was great!

We made some new friends and saw some people we knew from Marathon last year. 

While we were in Black Point the group of Island Packets that we had seen in Big Major sailed over and dropped anchor. We met a couple of them and then one day on the beach we met Hayden Cochran. He runs the IP Owners website and he and his wife Radeen sail an IP 35 just like SHIFT. 

As our time was winding down, we took a long walk to a beach on the ocean side. 

We stopped by the Blow Hole again. Very cool! I needed to climb up on that rock to get the view.

The rock formations and the crashing waves made for a very cool view.

This is the view from the top. 

You had to be very careful walking on these strange looking rocks, they are very sharp.

This is the beach we wanted to walk on. It was a grey and windy day, but we love to see the power of the ocean.

We have to get a Kim on the beach shot.

Black Point became our last point south. It was now March 23rd, and we had to be out of the Bahamas by April 17th. We had a lot of miles to cover, and we had one more Island Chain that we wanted to visit. We had a great weather window to sail north over the next few days, so we decided to get moving that way. In my next entry, I will write about our trip north.